Office of the Chief Accountant

Public Accountability Board - Proposed framework for enhancing the quality of financial information through improvement of oversight of the auditing process. (June 20, 2002)

Division of Market Regulation

Commodities Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) Rulemakings - Conducted extensive rulemaking, much of it jointly with the CFTC, to permit for the first time trading in security futures products.

Analyst Conflicts of Interest - Approved NASD and NYSE rules that address potential conflicts of interest by research analysts. Launched a thorough examination of analyst conflicts of interest.

Rating Agencies - Launched a thorough examination of the role of rating agencies in the U.S. securities markets.

Significant Progress on Options Market Linkage - Approved an amendment to the Linkage Plan filed by the options exchanges that, among other things, requires the intermarket linkage to be fully implemented no later than April 30, 2003. (May 29, 2002)

Office Of Investor Education and Assistance

Roundtables and Investor Summit - Held three Roundtables on Accounting and Auditing: New York (March 4, 2002), Washington, DC (March 6) and Chicago (April 4), and held the first-ever Investor Summit (May 10, 2002).

Overall Agency Highlights

Response to the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks - Took various emergency actions in response to the events of September 11th. Working with other U.S. financial regulators - the Fed, the OCC, and the New York State Banking Department - on a project to strengthen the operational resilience of the financial sector.

Patriot Act Rulemakings - The Commission has taken a number of steps to implement the Patriot Act, and thereby deter international money laundering and combat terrorist financing, including proposing jointly with the Department of Treasury regulations that would require broker-dealers and mutual funds to adopt reasonable procedures to verify the identities of customers and to determine whether customers appear on government lists of known or suspected terrorists.